


Season 3, Episode 10

by kadzubar



Category: Free!
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-03
Updated: 2018-11-03
Packaged: 2019-08-17 03:04:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16508144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kadzubar/pseuds/kadzubar
Summary: A little elaboration on THAT scene from ep.10, season 3 of Free! because KyoAni couldn't throw me a bone after 10 episodes of waiting and give Haru a proper reaction to Rin's declaration of eternal love and devotion.





	Season 3, Episode 10

Haru is discussing his training regime with his coach, and waiting a little while longer for them to finish shouldn’t be a big deal. After all, Rin’s waited this long already. He waited the whole week after he got back and couldn’t get in touch with Haru, and after he finally found out where he was, he waited for Haru to finish his training session, and for Makoto to give him his pep talk, and now, here he is, waiting for Haru to finish this discussion too, because Rin understands just how important it is, talking out your issues with your coach, especially when you’re aiming for the world stage, and really, what’s a few more minutes after all this time, but Rin just can’t wait anymore. He’s been waiting ever since he landed at Narita airport and, if he’s being honest with himself, even before that, ever since he got on that plane to Sydney all those months ago. So Rin steps out from behind the pillar, puts on his most confident smile, and walks up to Haru and his coach. 

“Done talking, Haru?” He’s looking at Haru, trying to gauge his reaction, wondering if Haru is as glad to see him as he is to see Haru, although that’s probably not possible, not when just the sight of Haru finally looking back at him is setting his heart singing in his chest. 

“Rin,” Haru breathes, and this it Rin realizes, the reason Rin waited for as long as he did, to see Haru react to him without anything else to take away his attention. The slight widening of his eyes and the emotions that flit across his face that only someone who knows him well can read, confusion, surprise, happiness, affection. The way Haru says his name with such warmth in his eyes and the tiniest, tiniest upward tilt of his lips, and Rin needs to remind himself to breathe. It’s ridiculous how Haru can get to him just by existing. 

They walk out to the outdoor eating area. It’s a two tiered deck, set outside the main training complex, and overlooking the slope down to the valley below. This training complex is one of the old prestigious ones, catering to Olympic hopefuls. It’s located on the side of a mountain in the middle of nowhere, all the better to eliminate any distractions for the athletes who train there Rin supposes. Haru’s coach must have some kinda pull to be able to swing pool time at a place like this. Rin wants to ask about Haru’s coach, the guy Gou called Perfect Killer Muscle Handsome Azuma, how Haru found him and why he decided to train under him, but he’s not quite ready to break the comfortable silence that has grown between them. 

By mutual if unspoken agreement they stop at the edge of the top deck, from here, they can see the sharp drop down into the valley below and the sister mountains of the one they’re on, framing the setting sun in the middle distance. It really is a spectacular sight. The evening wind ruffles their hair, carrying with it the sharp sweet scent of Japanese pine and the rich undertone of damp earth. Rin closes his eyes and breaths deep, he’s always been more of a city boy, enjoying the hustle and bustle and frenetic energy, but standing here next to Haru, with the fresh smell of earth after rain in his lungs and the susurrus of the trees in his ears, he can understand the appeal. He wouldn’t mind staying here with Haru, he can see it in his mind’s eye, no distractions just the two of them together, pushing each other to be better, go harder, swim faster.  
He opens his eyes and looks over at Haru, and he can’t stop the wave of affection and excitement from sweeping through him. Haru’s here, standing with him and they’re ready to take on the world. It’s his dream come true, or almost, just a few days more and they’ll be at the starting line, or maybe the starting line had been eight years ago when he’d seen a boy with cool blue eyes, who’d not so much cut through the water as weaved his way through like a dolphin through the waves, and he’d gone after him because not doing so would have been an impossibility. He laughs softly to himself and shakes his head as Haru looks over enquiringly. Apparently, after going so long without seeing Haru his romantic soul is in overdrive.

He shakes it off. “Been a while, huh?” he says, turning to Haru, “Since the surprise party.” 

“Yeah,” Haru’s back to his usual self, a complete 180 from his earlier training session.

Rin doesn’t bother to keep the amusement out of his voice as he says, “you got pretty heated up in there, huh?”

“I guess,” Haru is aggressively noncommittal.

Haru, so cool on the surface, but get his competitive spirit going and suddenly he’s as hot as they come. Rin can’t help but chuckle.

“What’s so funny?”

“I mean, it’s been so long since I’ve seen you get like that.”

Haru looks away, troubled. “It was a feeling I’d never felt before. The water was being taken from me, stirred up… I was swimming, but it didn’t feel like I was swimming.”

Rin can understand, he knows the feeling intimately well in fact, but he also knows that you can let that feeling consume you, let it eat away at you until you’re trapped in a hole of your own making, or you can take it in, accept it, and let it push you to be better. So he says, “He must’ve been pretty incredible to make you talk like that.”

Rin grins at the setting sun. “I’m getting excited now,” he says, and he really is. So what if Albert Wahlander is the world record holder? Before Rin is through, he’ll have beaten him and anyone else that stands in his way and he knows, KNOWS, with the kind of certainty that can move mountains, that Haru will be right there with him. 

Haru looks at him and there’s affection lurking in his eyes as he says, “You haven’t changed at all, Rin.”

“I change every day,” he tells Haru, willing him to understand. “Even my time is different every time I swim. If there’s anything that hasn’t changed, Haru… it’s that I still want to swim with you.”

Haru looks at him and nods, a tiny inclination of his head, then looks away. Rin wonders if he shouldn’t have said it, but he’s always been one to wear his heart on his sleeve. He wants to swim with Haru, has always wanted to swim with Haru. That’s something that will never change and he wants Haru to know it. To hell with bottling things up and leaving them unsaid, life’s too short. 

“It used to be my dream to swim in the Olympics,” he says, “to stand on the international stage, but now it’s different, you changed it. Now, I want to stand on that stage with you.” He grins at Haru as he says this.

Haru ducks his head then looks up at Rin almost shyly. “That’s my dream too,” he tells Rin, and there’s something glowing in his eyes that makes Rin’s heart skip a beat. 

Rin laughs, he can’t contain the feeling in his chest, doesn’t want to contain it. He slings an arm around Haru’s shoulders and pulls him close. Haru gives him one of his looks. He laughs again ignoring it. “I’m looking forward to facing you in the freestyle.” 

Haru looks at him, “yeah,” he replies, a tiny smile on his lips. 

And Rin knows, there’s nowhere for them to go from here but up.


End file.
